‘You’ve just moved in, haven’t you?’
I nod. ‘ My mum’s aunt died.’
‘Dorette?’
Again, I nod.
‘Yeah, that was totally tragic. My mum found her.’
I scrunch up my nose. I didn’t even know Dorette so it’s hard to be too sad for her loss or mine. ‘That sucks for her. So, you live around here too?’ I hope he does. If he doesn’t and he’s just visiting family, I might actually die of boredom.
‘Yep. All my life I’ve lived here.’
Phew. ‘What do you do for entertainment? There isn’t anything here. It must be boring.’
‘I guess. There’s a bus stop not too far away and you can get to Whitby. It’s cool there, there’s the beach, an arcade, a castle, but here on Clover Lane, you’re right. There’s not much to do. There’s an estate and a shop but you have to walk past a lake, and it takes about half an hour on foot. I have to walk my dog. Do you want to come?’ He blinks hard about three times.
I’d love to meet his dog. I’ve always wanted a dog but never been allowed to have one. ‘Yes.’
‘Wait here.’ He jogs towards the house almost opposite ours and, a minute later, he comes out with a golden retriever. ‘This is Diggerty. He likes to dig. Mum goes ballistic at all the holes in the garden, but we love him.’
I realise I don’t even know what to call the boy. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Harry, and you?’
‘Morgan.’
‘Nice to meet you, Morgan,’ he says in a funny accent, American, I think. ‘That was Morgan Freeman by the way.’
I laugh. ‘You’re really bad at accents.’
I follow him to the woods. I’m not allowed here. I glance back but my mum isn’t looking out of the window. Mum’s being paranoid anyway. I look up and there’s no way I’m going to get pelted by falling branches. Harry leads the way as Diggerty roams free. I don’t even care a bit that Mum doesn’t want me to come here. Harry seems to know how not to get us lost. ‘Where are we going?’
‘To the den.’
‘I’m fourteen, not five. You hang out in a den?’
He rolls his eyes and his dark hair has become dotted with snowflakes. ‘It’s not my den. It’s been here forever. Diggerty likes having a run around there. He mostly pees up the sides.’
‘So, what’s at this den apart from the stench of dog pee?’
‘See for yourself.’
I almost laugh as I see an old shed that has been extended by attempts to build two more wooden structures against it. A couple of small torn awnings jut out of the roof but have long flopped into a mess. Someone has badly built a bench, and weeds wind through every gap in the wood.
‘It’s better in the summer. Do you want to look inside?’
‘No.’ I shiver. I’m here in the middle of the woods with someone I’ve just met and I realise I didn’t clock how we got here. There was a maze of twists and turns. I’m now officially lost without Harry. The wilderness isn’t a habitat I’m comfortable with, being a city person. It’s alien to me.
‘Do you want a sweet?’
I take what looks like a square of fudge from the scrunched-up packet. ‘Did you leave the little welcome hamper outside our door this morning?’
‘No, that definitely wasn’t me. Someone left you a hamper?’
‘Yes. A small box full of veg and biscuits. I thought I saw you leaving when I came out the house.’
He looks at me for a second too long. ‘No, I never went anywhere near your house.’
